zSpace AIO and 300 Recovery Process

Article last updated: December 08, 2017 00:36

This article describes the 4 sections for downloading and installing the zSpace AIO image on your system to recover your zSpace AIO. Doing this will reset your zSpace to current factory shipping conditions.

Supported Product

Currently this is supported only on zSpace AIO, zSpace AIO Pro, and zSpace 300 systems. If you need to recover any other zSpace system, please contact zSpace Support.

Before you begin

This entire process may take a significant amount of time. Please read all sections and steps to have a clear understanding of the process before you begin. If this process is not clear, please contact zSpace Support. Depending on your Internet speeds, it may take 3 hours to multiple days to download all the files. Once the files are downloaded, it will take approximately 45 minutes to create the WimImage file. The actual imaging process takes approximately another 30 minutes.

All sections and all steps are required to complete this process. This article will walk you through the following sections:

What does this process do?

Required Items

Section 1. Make bootable USB drive

Section 2. Image File

Section 3. Copy Boot Files

Section 4. Restore zSpace

What does this process do?

Restores your current zSpace AIO to the most recent factory defaults. Therefore, only perform this process if you at zSpace Customer Support's request or if the system has become unusable.

Installs Windows 10 Pro (you must have Windows 10 on your zSpace or you must have your own Windows 10 Pro license key)

Section 1. Make bootable USB driveThe first step makes a bootable USB drive. This only needs to be done once and the same USB drive can be used in futures images.

Plug your USB drive or external HDD into computer. Recommend to use a USB 3.0 port for faster speeds. *We have had a couple reports the USB drive to only be working in the USB 2.0 ports. The USB 2.0 ports are the upper two ports on the right side of the zSpace.

Download the DriverCreator.zip and unzip onto your computer.

*Warning*. Performing the next steps will erase all contents of your drive.

Right-click on the FormatUFD.cmd file and select Run as Administrator.

Select the disk # for the drive which you want to format and press enter. Warning: Doing this will erase the contents of your drive and cannot be undone. Selecting the wrong device will result in permanent loss of your data. If you are not certain of the device which you are formatting, stop here.

Enter NTFS for the file system format.

The drive will be formatted and the application will close. This process may take a couple minutes depending on the size of your drive.

Section 2. WIM Image File

Follow the below steps to create the WIM Image File. The file is this example is named WimImage-v37.wim where v37 is the version of the image. Different image file is needed between the zSpace 300 and zSpace AIO series.

Download all 7 parts of the WimImage files to your computer for your model of zSpace hardware. Warning: These files are more than 38GB total in size. Depending on your Internet speeds, these files could take a few hours to a few days to download.

After the files are downloaded, verify the file sizes against the below images. If you experience download errors or experience errors during the next steps in this process, try downloading the files again downloading only 1 file at a time or downloading the files using another computer.

For zSpace AIO and AIO Pro

For zSpace 300

Right-click on the WimImage-vXX.zip file. select ExtractAll and Extract to begin the unzipping process. The file will be unzipped in the same location as where the 7 WimImage files are downloaded to. This process takes approximately 45 minutes to complete.

Copy the WimImage-vXX.wim file to your thumb drive or external HDD, created in Section 1, onto the root of the root of your drive.

Section 3. Copy Boot FilesYou will need to place all the files onto the bootable USB drive. Perform the following steps to complete this process.

Download Bootfiles-vXX.zip

Unzip the files into the root of your formatted USB drive created in Section 1.

Once the Boot Files and WimImage file (from step 2) are copied to the USB drive, the file layout in the drive should look similar to the below image. Notice all these files are in the root of the USB Drive which is drive (N:) on my PC.

Section 4. Restore zSpaceThis is the process of placing the image onto the zSpace. Warning: Doing this will erase the contents of your zSpace and cannot be undone.

Shut down your zSpace

Plug your external HDD or thumb drive into one of the USB 3.0 slots on the right side of the zSpace. *We have had a couple reports the USB drive to only be working in the USB 2.0 ports. The USB 2.0 ports are the upper two ports on the right side of the zSpace.

Power on the zSpace and immediately tap the F7 key on the keyboard about once every second. You eventually will come to a boot device selection screen.

Select USB if you are using a thumb drive. If you are using an external HDD the name of the drive may show. The device name may also be abbreviated with “UFD”.

On step 4, if you selected the correct boot device, the PC will boot to a light blue screen with a black window. You will see the process of replacing the image on your PC. This process will take roughly 30 minutes to complete.

When the process is complete, you will see a message to remove your thumb drive or external drive and press the Enter key to reboot the PC

The PC will reboot several times finally arriving at Windows setup Language selection screen. Failure to wait until the PC has rebooted multiple time arriving at the Windows setup Language selection screen may result in the process not completing correctly.

Read the directions before starting. Most issues are caused by the user not reading all the directions. The recovery process requires following the steps in all 4 sections.

These files are very large. If you are having issues downloading the files, try downloading the files from another computer, another Internet connection, or downloading 1 file at a time.

There has been a couple cases where USB thumb-drives are not being detected during zSpace startup in section 4. If this is happening, try using the USB 2.0 port, which are the top two ports on the right side of the zSpace.